House No. 84: Tomte Hüs

House No. 84: Tomte Hüs*

card stock and glue

10 in. x 10 in.

084/365; 03/25/11

I continue to be inspired by Scandinavian design this week. Behold, a little box! Another container for holding goodies!  The door opens for filling and emptying. Or for entry for a wee gnome (in Swedish, tomte).

I think that this house would be a sweet party favor. A village of these would make an adorable count-down calendar for your favorite holiday. Please send me photos if you try out the template!

I plan on revisiting this house in fabric as well. How cute would this be with a button closure on the door? When I do, I'll post a pattern for you.

*Yes, the umlaut is superfluous. I can't help myself. Maybe it's exposure to eighties hair bands. I also have the urge to give this house a first name.

House No. 78: Housenvelope

House No. 78: Housenvelope

paper, double-sided tape

4 in. x 5 in.

078/365; 03/19/11

 

I wanted to devise a small house pocket in which to deliver notes and treats. It's an everyday valentine. I will eventually post a short tutorial, so you can make them too.

House No. 70: Zayat

House No. 70: Zayat
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
070/365; 03/11/11

In Burma, nearly every village has a zayat, a building used as a shelter for travelers, religious celebration, and civic assemblies. Buddhist monks live in zayats during intensified practice on sabbath days. 

And so ends my series of alphabet houses. I almost feel a little sad that I have finished them, I enjoyed them so much, but I have so many ideas to play out and some collaborations coming up. I can't wait to share them with you.

House No. 69: Yaodong

House No. 69: Yaodong
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
069/365; 03/10/11

Yaodong are humanly-excavated caves that have been constructed and used for centuries in China, particularly in the Loess Plateau. Once again, these ancient building techniques are innovative sustainable housing. I'm beginning to see a trend here.

The "Up" House!

This has made me elated today!

This little blog of mine is entitled The Happy Homemaker, and this house from National Geographic put the happy in home for me today. Look!

The house from Up!

I love that this is an experiment. How lovely.

(Note the sign.)

And while someone in the NG comments pointed out the problems with using up precious helium and being wasteful, I am, for once, just going to enjoy the novelty and creative expression with self-imposed ignorant bliss. Decadent of me, yes, but joy is certainly a worthy purpose for artistic endeavors. I think that this instance is a wonderful example of the crossroads where creative expression and science meet.

PS: I originally saw this National Geographic project on the fantastic Design Milk site. Design Milk is a frequent happiness infuser in my life; I highly recommend following their posts.

House No. 64: Wigwam

House No. 64: Wigwam
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
064/365; 03/05/11

While working on this illustration of a wigwam used by the indigenous people of North America  — I based mine on the wigwams made of bark by the Algonquin —I felt like an elementary school child working on a presentation for class. I seem to remember drawing all sorts of Native American housing for school reports: wigwams, tipis, longhouses ... again, some things never change.

House No. 62: Villa

 

House No. 62: Villa
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
062/365; 03/03/11

The word villa comes from Italian by way of Latin: Roman villas were the country houses of the upper class, and the Tuscan countryside of Italy are still dotted with generations of these estates that make up the quintessential picture of the villa.

I always think of villas being flanked by rows of tall, pencil-thin cypress trees and overlooking rolling hills of vineyards. Sigh. I could use a stay at a villa right about now.

House No. 61: House Dressing

 

House No. 61: House Dressing
ink and colored pencil on cardstock

3 in. x 5 in.
061/365; 03/02/11

House haute couture.

House No. 59: Unity House

House No. 59: Unity House
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
059/365; 02/28/11

Following the Second World War, Britain had an urgent need for housing, and traditional building materials and skilled labor were in short supply. In order for inexpensive and easily erected properties to be installed, component parts made of cast concrete were produced in factories and then sent out to be erected by labor who were untrained in traditional construction skills.

One style of house was called Unity housing.

About 15,000 Unity homes were built in the 1950's, mostly as semi detached and terraced houses.  They were factory produced and assembled on site with precast reinforced concrete columns. They had pre-fabricated kitchens and bathrooms and were situated in excellent locations with roomy accommodations and sizable yards.

This type of structure makes me think of Number 4 Privet Drive and the Bucket residence (Chez Bouquet).

House No. 58: Trulli

House No. 58: Trulli
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
058/365; 02/27/11

A trullo is a traditional Apulian stone dwelling of the Italian Itria Valley. Similar to the French orri in their dry-stone conical roof structure, trulli traditionally were built without any mortar.

In addition to its unique architecture, the Itria Valley is famous for its annual summer opera festival. Where do I sign up?

House No. 57: Sámi House

 

House No. 57: Sámi House
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
057/365; 02/26/11

Let me get one thing out of the way at the start: there are a lot of different houses built and used by the Sámi people, who are a culturally connected people spread across many different political lines in far northern Europe.  The Sámi live in the northernmost parts of the countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

In fact, you may notice some similarities between house number fifty-seven, here, and house number forty-three, Russian Izba, particularly in the izba from the story of Baba Yaga, a Chicken-Legged Izba. (Isn't that a lovely depiction of Baba Yaga's house by fantasy illustrator Reuben C. Dodd?)

I illustrated a Sámi house traditionally found in Sweden for this house because I love the house's supports, but there are many, many fascinating Sámi dwellings that could take up their own sub-project, and believe me, I'm thinking about it.

I am really fascinated by the Sámi, and I want to learn loads more about them. I will keep you posted!

House No. 56: Rondavel

House No. 56: Rondavel
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
056/365; 02/25/11

Rondavels are found throughout southern Africa including South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Botswana.

The structure of a rondavel is pretty amazing because the roof has no struts or beams supporting it and is built without internal braces. There are no seams, joists, or rafters up there, like there are in a gabled roof.


Radial poles, called principals in architecture lingo, are supported by circular purlins, which are concentric ring-shaped supports that form the conical shape of the roof. It's kind of like a giant hoop skirt, but without a person holding it up from the inside. (see image below)

The roof is thatched over wooden poles made of tree limbs and sewn with grass rope.

Traditionally, the floors and walls of these roundhouses are fortified with a processed mortar made of earth, sand, and dung that strengthens the earthen floor and stone walls with a firm and smooth coating.

The houses are not just green and sustainable, they are beautiful too. The exterior of the walls are oftentimes decorated with carvings, paintings, and mosaics.

Verified information of rondavels is not as prevalent as other house types that I have been researching, but the essay by Gerald Steyn, The Indigenous Rondavel – a Case for Conservation, has an excellent bibliography that got me started.

House No. 55: Quinzhee

House No. 55: Quinzhee
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
055/365; 02/24/11

A quinzhee, for those who are unfamiliar, is also known as a snow hut, cave, or shelter. "What is the difference between a quinzhee and an igloo?" you might ask. (I know I did.) The answer is that a quinzhee is carved out of snow while an igloo is built from blocks of it.

While igloos are a tradition of the Inuit, and are crafted in a specific manner, quinzhee are built and used in many places.

Quinzee were even built in Princeton, New Jersey in the eighties. I remember my mom building them with me when I was wee. She would carve out a snow drift to make me a snow house and a snow couch and a snow bed ... The making was the fun part.

What can I say? I liked making houses. Well, some things never change, do they?

House No. 54: Pueblo

House No. 54: Pueblo
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
054/365; 02/23/11

Native American Pueblo house complexes are modular, multiple story houses built out of adobe by the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest. (I, too, used Adobe products to lay out the design of this house, but my Adobe is software and not bricks made of baked clay and straw.) Each unit of these structures is similar to an apartment. Many times an extended clan live together in the Pueblo structure, and homes are passed on for many generations.

I love the way the doors of the Pueblo houses are often painted to match the sky. The combination of the colors of the sky and clay are exquisite.

House No. 39: American Foursquare

House No. 39: American Foursquare
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
039/365; 02/08/11

Foursquare and ten dozen years ago, our homebuilders brought forth on this continent a new architectural style, conceived in simplicity, and dedicated to the Prairie School and Craftsman styles.

About as American as architecture comes, the Foursquare is sometimes referred to as the Transitional Pyramid. It was a widely popular style that was built extensively for over forty years in both the country and cities. Their construction increased even more when they were offered as kit houses in Sears catalogs. You still see them a lot today.

House No. 37: Earth Berm

House No. 37: Earth Berm
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
037/365; 02/06/11

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, "An Unexpected Party"

While its most recognizable form is probably the hobbit holes of Tolkien's Middle Earth, earth dwellings, called berms (meaning a mound or wall of earth or sand), have been used around the world for millennia. Earth dwellings are now associated with the green building movement.

Sometimes the earth is "bermed" about an existing dwelling, and sometimes they are dug out of an existing slope or dug and the earth is rebuilt over a structure. They are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, are stable and fireproof, and are largely organic and/or upcycled. If we ever go off the grid — which is not likely, but I fantasize about it sometimes — I want to live in an earth berm. My husband, however, says that it seems rather dirty and that he is not a groundhog.

House No. 32: Barraca

House No. 32: Barraca
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
032/365; 02/01/11

Barracas, Spanish for barracks, are traditional, thick-walled houses of Valencia, Spain made of sticks and clay. They frequently have crosses at the apex of the gables and centered religious iconography above the front door. The structures are frequently, though not always, gable-front houses, meaning the principle facade of the house is on the gabled end.

House No. 30: Frost House

House No. 30: Frost House
vector illustration
approx 8 in. x 10 in.
030/365; 01/30/11

Inspired by the frost photo posted by Angie Neimand on Simulacrum.

House No. 18: Green House

House No. 18: Green House

graphite on cardstock

2.75 in. x 3 in. x 2 in.

018/365; 01/18/11

 

It was so cold and grey today that I wished for a little cultivation spot for myself that was warm and protected. I needed to see some green and hope of spring, and so I made a greenhouse.

House No. 16: Flying House

House No. 16: Flying House

ink on paper

6 in. x 8 in. 

016/365; 01/16/11

 

I have been finishing up my submission for the Sketchbook Project this weekend. The theme I chose for my sketchbook is Dirigibles and Submersibles. I added a home zeppelin to the last page.